Some super happy music news in the world of Tom (that’s me) this week! While the indie music scene is freaking out about a new track from Fleet Foxes (which is amazing, don’t get me wrong), what has got me pumped is that Alt-J has announced that they have a new album coming out this June, Relaxer. With the announcement came the release of a new song as well titled 3WW (Alt-J tends to have strange names for their songs, it’s all kind of part of their pastiche!)

Alt-J came out of nowhere for me. I totally missed their first album. I may have heard Breezeblocks on the radio a couple of times. It was 2012 after all so radio was still somewhat part of my life. And when their sophomore album arrived in 2014, I listened to Left Hand Free more than a couple of times, but I don’t think I fully understood who Alt-J were. And then I saw them live. They were the second last act on the second day of Osheaga, a music festival in Montreal, Quebec, and I was entranced. The music was just so different for a lack of a better word. It was melodic and melancholy but not in some new post-emo kind of depressing way. The music had bounce as it broke standard pop conventions. It was still pop-esque, but just bizarre enough to deter a full mainstream audience. Me though? I was converted.

As for the new song, it is everything I described. It is weird and yet poppy. It has it’s hooks and they have grabbed me. So here I am, with bated breath, eagerly anticipating Relaxer. June can’t come quickly enough.

This was originally posted on Refined Geekery’s Anchor.fm channel. You can favourite the channel here, and listen to the audio version of this below:

https://anchor.fm/e/9a0bf0?at=27670

Follow Tom on Twitter at thomaskagar